Technology Integration:
Multimedia in Projects: About Multimedia and Project Development

Technology Integration is a four part series on essential questions,
technology integration resources, web page design, and multimedia in projects.
Sections contain relevant opening essays and resources.

Multimedia and Projects Essay

About Multimedia

A combination of text, audio, animation, video, images/graphics, and
interactivity define multimedia. Each appeals to a human sense. The
degree and manner to which each is used has the potential to increase learning.
According to Szuprowicz, Fetterman, and Gupta, humans retain only 20% of
what they see, from 20% to 30% of what they hear, and about 40% to 50% of what
they both see and hear. And they can retain up to 80% of what they see, hear,
and do at the same time (cited in Fluckiger, 1995, pp. 79-80). But
questions arise: What does retain mean? It would appear that this retention pertains
to long-term memory. How confident can we be in the accuracy of those percentages?
Such percentages or similar percentages are often quoted by promoters of multimedia.

Perhaps a better way to think of multimedia is to consider that sight is
the main acquisition sense of humans, so adding images and video to text can
exploit this sense. Further, we retain sound better than images, so
audio becomes an efficient way to acquire knowledge. Using media that
appeals to more than one sense, as long as content supports each sense and
does not split attention, will increase memorization. And finally,
retention is aided, if the interactive element of practicing while seeing or
listening is added to the mix (Fluckiger, 1995). What we do know is that multimedia
use changes the paradigm of learning from "standardization to customization"
(Reigeluth, 1996, p. 14) to maximize the learning experience.

The mix of video, audio, and high quality graphics afforded by multimedia may grab the
attention of students, particularly poor readers, in ways that traditional approaches to
instruction would not (Kenworthy, 1993). In multimedia environments,
learners construct meaningful knowledge by "selecting words and selecting images
from the presented material, organizing words and organizing images into
coherent mental representations, and integrating the resulting verbal and visual
representations with one another" (Mayer, 1997, p. 4).

More is not necessarily better, however. In terms of the learning process, the selection of media should be based on
the intended learning outcomes. In its review of published studies from
1997 to 2007 on
Multimodal Learning through Media, the Metiri Group led by CEO Cheryl Lemke (2008)
noted that an optimal design for learning "depends
on the content, context, and the learner." There are instances "where a
student listens to narration or reads text about a topic" that might be better
than engaging in collaboration (see, hear, and do) with others. For example,
"for the novice student engaged in basic skill building such as learning chemical
symbols [or other basic facts as found in math], individual learning through
reading or simple drill and practice might be the optimal learning design. Yet, for a
different learning objective – for instance, understanding cause and effect of a specific
chemical reaction – involving that same student in collaborative problem-solving with
fellow students through a simulation might be the most effective learning approach" (p. 8).
"Optimizing learning for each student requires more fine-grained differentiation of instruction
that takes into account – and leverages: ... how the brain functions, how people learn, and
multimedia design. ... [Further,] the use of technology and multimedia, resources, and
lessons can vary in the level of interactivity, modality, sequencing,
pacing, guidance, prompts, and alignment to student interest, all of which influence the
efficiency in learning" (p. 8).

Integrating Multimedia into Instruction

Are you searching for ideas to use multimedia to enhance your curriculum
and instruction?

Multimedia Projects--Mathematics from Western
Reserve Public Media lists several projects for learners in grades 3-8,
complete with all you need to implement them, including videos:

Accessible Shapes-Geometry (Gr. 6)

Math and Science Gumbo (Gr. 3-6)

Big or Small: Measure it All (Gr. 3-8)

QuizBus: Dealing with Data (Gr. 3-8)

Phi 1.61803: Art in Math and Science (Gr. 5)

Masters of Gravity (Gr. 5-6)

Math nMotion (Gr. 8)

SimScience
also is devoted to the use of computer simulations for discovery in science.

The integration of multimedia into primary and secondary classrooms
is in keeping with goals of the International Society for Technology in
Education (ISTE) Standards for students and teachers. In particular, student goals include that they use a
variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas
effectively. Related to this is that teachers demonstrate
introductory knowledge, skills, and understanding of concepts related to
technology, which would include development of multimedia competency.

Hypermedia focuses on a database of information with several methods of
navigation, and can also be used to present information.

Simulations improve on tutorials and drills, provide a precursor to real
experiences, and give learners experiences that otherwise might not be
possible.

Open-ended learning environments allow students to set their own goals to
solve meaningful problems, experiment, interpret, analyze, learn from errors,
revise their thinking, and collaborate with others.

Educational games allow practice that integrates learning across many
subject areas. [See
Game On!
by Dr. Patricia Deubel in T.H.E. Journal for more on digital game-based learning.]

Computerized tests allow the assessment of knowledge, skills, or
performance.

George Siemens (2003) discussed the strengths and weaknesses
of various media formats and their roles in achieving outcomes, particularly in relation to an
online learning environment. In terms of text, audio, visuals, and video, he
indicated the following:

"Paper, digital, manuals, online chats, discussion questions, and
blogging are all effective uses of text" (section: Text). Text is well
suited to activities involving synthesis, evaluation, and reflection. It's
portable, easy to reproduce, but it's overused and is a passive medium.

Audio enables two-way interactions, is faster than typing, and certainly
appeals to auditory learners, but learners can tune-out the audio. Audio is
useful for explanations, accessibility, pronunciations, for example.

Visuals enrich text material and can be used for any learning task.
Cost varies depending on if one is using the rather inexpensive options of
clip art and digital photos to enhance textual content or the more expensive
and time consuming options of animations and video.

Video can add the personal element to the learning experience, and can
be used with multiple learners. Lectures, explanations, and detailed
demonstrations of complex tasks can be stored, and reviewed multiple times.
However, it is generally a passive medium, might take a team effort to
produce and is not easy to modify.

Vivien Sieber and David Andrew (2003, p. 228) of the University of North
London found students gained skills and used a range of intelligences when
working with multimedia and the project method, which they linked to
Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences:

Verbal: subject content, text, reports

Musical: sound effects

Spatial Visual: text, graphics, animations, background

Logical: navigation and project management

Interpersonal: group work and evaluation feedback

Intrapersonal: understanding, confidence, and self-management

Among conclusions regarding evidence for the effectiveness and impact of
media and technology in K-12 schools around the world, Reeves (1998) stated that
multimedia presentation software can support development of a wide range of
student abilities, including research, time management, organizational,
presentation, and reflective thinking skills. However, Rupert Wegerif
(2002, citing Lehrer, Connell, & Ericksen, 1992) indicated that teachers must
model skills to be developed. He elaborated on the thinking skills that
learners need as designers of multimedia presentations:

Project Management Skills

creating a timeline for the completion of the project

allocating resources and time to different parts of the project

assigning roles to team members.

Research Skills

determining the nature of the problem and how research should be
organized

Project Phases: Planning, Design, Development,
Authoring

There are four phases in completing a project: planning, design, development,
and authoring.

Planning

Planning a project requires knowing what you have available with which to
work, including a budget and timeline. In addition to hardware for
capturing images and sound (e.g., flatbed scanner, digital camera for still
images and/or video, microphone), you will need software for video, audio, and
image editing, and an authoring tool for your project. Paint and draw
programs can be used to create and manipulate graphics. Students might
capture their own images with digital cameras. They might scan their
paintings and drawings for use in projects, or use clip art from the Web or from
purchased CD clip art collections. They might even scan images from their
coloring books.

You should begin by listing hardware and software in your classroom and/or
personal system for creating multimedia products. Include items relating to
contact information to people who might provide technical assistance. Add
tutorials and manuals that you have available and their locations.
Identify minimum systems requirements for the development of a multimedia
project, and where you might find resources to upgrade your system, if needed.

In the planning phase, your team should also brainstorm project ideas, and
then select one idea of merit that would be suitable for development within your
classroom. One project idea for a math classroom is to have students develop a
computer assisted learning module for a topic they are studying, which might be
used to teach others. Describe the project in 50 words or less, which helps you
to focus the scope and content of a project that you might actually accomplish
within a specific time frame. Now is also the time to gather potential
subject matter resources and image/audio/video resources. These might include
Web sites gathered from Internet searches.

Plan for the type of graphical elements to include. For graphic elements, three factors shape the effectiveness of
visuals: the goal of instruction, the learning landscape, and features
of the graphic itself. Graphics can serve communication functions
or be based on psychological learning processes (Clark & Lyons, 2003).

For example, Lloyd Rieber (1994) identified five uses of computer graphics. On
an affective level, graphics might be cosmetic and serve only as a decoration. Graphics
might be used to motivate and arouse curiosity. On a cognitive level, graphics can be
used to gain attention and focus learners on instruction. They can
be used to present and elaborate on a concept. They can be used to assist with
practice and for visual feedback.

When used for communication, Ruth Clark and Chopeta Lyons (2003)
noted seven functions of graphics for learning:

Decorative: Add aesthetic appeal or humor; in general they do not add
instructional value.

Organizational: Show qualitative relationships among content; such
graphics help orient learners to the structure and sequence of lesson
content. Geometric visuals are often used.

Relational: Show quantitative relationships among two or more
variables (e.g., pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs)

Transformational: Show changes in objects over time or space;
commonly used in combination with representational graphics to
illustrate procedures and processes. Animations and video showing
how to do something are examples.

Interpretive: Illustrate a theory or principle; these build understanding
of concepts or principles that are abstract, invisible, or both. A
visual simulation would be an example, but interpretive graphics
don't have to involve simulations.

When considering which type of communications graphic to use, Clark and Lyons
(2003) provided additional advice:

"In general, procedural instructional goals are best served by a
combination of representational and transformational visuals to
demonstrate procedures and to contextualize online simulation practice.
Facts benefit from representational visuals and, when there are multiple
facts, from relational and organizational graphics as well. Concepts can
be taught with representational visuals as well as interpretive and
organizational graphics. Processes benefit from transformational and
interpretive graphics. Principle-based tasks can make use of
representational visuals to show the job context in which the tasks will
be performed as well as organizational, relational, transformational,
and interpretive visuals." (p. 2 online)

Design

The primary problem in the design phase of a project is finding a balance
between the learning that is to be acquired and the effective use of the
multimedia to support learning. Using your team's agreed-upon project goal, identify a sequence of steps to
develop the project and assign tasks to team members. For example, if the
multimedia project is to create a short video, student tasks might be the
producer, writer, director, editor, and so on. Members should also
agree, in business terms "sign-off," on the completion of each phase of a
project. You should develop a navigation structure with flowcharts and
storyboards that fit the flowcharts, and a prototype of the project.

Storyboards are visual representations of what will be included on a screen.
There is no single way to create a storyboard, but one should be created for
each screen and include thumbnail sketches and placement of all visuals (e.g.,
photos, clip art, videos) and corresponding text. Storyboards should
include associated audio scripts that will eventually be recorded. Both
written and audio scripts might take multiple drafts. Include
identifying information, such as a title, date, version number and the
storyboard sheet identifying number (like a page number). Each storyboard should
also include the filenames of specific audio, video, and graphic files that will
be used, programming instructions and notes to the developer, and branching
information (Beyer, 2005; Lee, Chamers, & Ely, 2005). Beyer suggested using
filenames that describe the content of the file, rather than using numbers,
because this makes searching for files easier.

Seek permission from authors of copyrighted material that you might wish to
incorporate in the project. David Warlick (http://www.landmark-project.com)
of Landmarks for Schools has simple to use
Permission Templates for this purpose, which will automatically go to the
author or web master of the site you wish to use in instruction or for a school
project.

Development

During the development phase, your team will deal with the technical aspects
of creating graphics, and capturing/editing audio and video. It is here
that the team will need to know about correct use of file formats (e.g., BMP,
GIF, PICT, TIFF, EPS, JPG, JPEG, MPEG) and how to apply appropriate resolution
and compression techniques (e.g., lossy vs. lossless) affecting file size.
For example, scanned images in high resolution for printing are often saved in
TIFF format. BMP (bit-map) is Windows based and typically used with line
art. GIF files are limited to 256 colors, a poor choice for photos.
GIF files are often used on the Internet for displaying images in low
resolution. JPEG includes several alternatives for the degree of
compression. You might practice scanning an image at different
resolutions, noting the size of each file. This process helps you examine the
time issue for successful project completion and storage requirements for files
that you would like your students to create. It also impacts the amount of
memory that you need on your hard drive for producing multimedia.

Authoring

The final phase in the project model is authoring in which you put all the
pieces together. The authoring process has at least three components:
mastery of the programming tools, gathering and learning the content, and
instructional design and development. "Middle and secondary student-authors'
efforts might be divided into tool mastery and content presentation using
greatly informed instructional design" (Abramson, 1995, p. 10). During
this phase, the team will focus on screen design, selection of color, consistent
use of a metaphor, icons, and navigation features, all of which will impact the
overall look and ease of use of the project. The team should "alpha" test
the product and make revisions at each stage in the development and authoring
process, before presenting a project as finished. Certainly, students
should rehearse any text they might be using to produce video and cue cards
might be needed. "Beta" testing or
usability testing with learners who were not part of the development team will
offer a fresh perspective on the product, point out problem areas, and provide
recommendations for improvement, which the developers might not have observed.

On PowerPoint as an Authoring Tool

PowerPoint is a powerful authoring tool for students and educators for
classroom projects and presentations. Sometimes, however, authors fail to
consider the audience perspective in their development. Think ahead as you develop your
presentation. For example, Lynell Burmark (2012) noted that when presenting a concept that is new for
an audience, begin with concrete examples, then move to the more abstract (p. 45).

Consider how would you answer the following questions:

What are the purposes of slides?

How many slides are needed in a presentation for the allotted time?

Should slides be handed out? If so, when?

Should words dance onto the screen? -- a possible distraction

Should words become prominent and fade? -- How important are those
words to remember?

Should the background have a message?

How many levels of indentation can still be seen from the distance?

Will Internet access be available if you use hyperlinks to Web resources?
If so, will the connection speed be sufficient for accessing and viewing
multimedia content?

PowerPoint slides outline the session, and contain key points to emphasize to
an audience. A primary concept is slides accompany a presentation, and do
not just contain script to be read to an audience. I have told students to
imagine you are standing before an audience giving a presentation on your topic.
The audience sees one slide at a time. They expect a smooth, logical
presentation of your message as you progress from one slide to the next. Hence,
presenters need good speaking skills, eye contact with the audience, and
appropriate gestures and body language to maintain audience interest. The
emphasis in the authoring should be on the message to be delivered. Glitzy
slides with poor content are not valuable to an audience.

Slides can be used to demonstrate something visual that discussion cannot
replicate and can incorporate all multimedia types: graphics, audio and
video, and hyperlinks to the Web. Hyperlinks can be used to make the
presentation non-linear. As a classroom tool, PowerPoint can be used to
post lectures for student review or for students who were unable to attend
class. Slides can easily be updated for additional presentations.
PowerPoint is also valuable as a tool to organize thoughts in preparation for
writing a paper or an article. PowerPoint can be used to develop
interactive multimedia programs for self-paced individualized learning.

Each slide can contain a notes page. Notes remind the presenter of what to
say about the content of the slide and any bullet points provided. The
audience does not see these notes during the slide show, which the novice PowerPoint user might not know. When adding content to the notes page for a
slide, keep in mind that about 250 words fit in one text box in the notes
section, single spaced with one blank line between paragraphs on each slide.
The text box size can be enlarged and the font size for notes can be changed.
All notes should fit inside the text box, however. If you print your
presentation for your benefit, each slide and its notes should print on a single
page with roughly one inch margins all around—slide on top half, notes on bottom
half. Another caution that I have given students is the notes should
accompany one slide only. In other words, notes for slide 1 should not
extend over to the notes section for slide 2, and so on.

To add page numbers to slides (e.g., perhaps in the lower right corner),
select to VIEW the SLIDE MASTER of your presentation. If you have
customized your presentation, rather than using a pre-existing template, be
sure slides are formatted consistently for a professional look, and that a
viewer of your presentation will not get lost in your navigation structure.

An audience appreciates
resources, references, contact information, and handouts used in the
presentation. As you develop a project that might have 15-20 slides or
more, the references will grow. A complete listing of resources and
references used might be placed at the end. Each time you include a new
resource, it is easier to add it to the end of the presentation on those slides
right away, rather than waiting until all slides are complete and then creating
that cumulative list. Audiences also appreciate a slide called Contact
Information for questions, comments, or other feedback they might have.
The choice of what to include is up to the presenter, such as your name, work
place or school, address (e.g., home, school, or work), telephone/fax, email,
and URL of a personal or professional web site. Finally, audiences
appreciate handouts of the presentation slides so that they can place notes next
to a particular slide. Slides can be printed with or without the author's
notes pages. PowerPoint includes options for printing slides with lines
for notes, or multiple slides on a page (e.g., four or six to a page).

Some presenters misuse PowerPoint. The following tips would be
useful in development and presentation.

Provide adequate contrast between text color and the background.
Note that the eye will be drawn to colors before black and white. Dark
colors on light backgrounds work well, particularly if slide content is to be
printed.

Number your slides so that the audience has a perspective on the length of the
presentation.

Expand upon bulleted points in the oral presentation.

Avoid those bullet points and content that flies in on the click of the mouse,
particularly those that are accompanied by repetitive "swooshing" sounds.

Match slide content with dialog.

Avoid using words that fade on a slide, as fading words diminish their
importance.

Avoid font sizes less than 20 points. Viewers sitting in the back of a
large room may not see fine print. For content, Burmark (2012) noted
that viewers will be able
to read lower case faster than upper case.

Consider only two levels of indentation for readability.

Avoid excessive animation and sound that do not support content.

Any graphics used should support content of a slide. Keep in
mind that the eye will be drawn to the image before any text.

Spell and grammar check all slides before presenting. Double check
that all hyperlinks work and go to the correct slide and back.

Pretest from the back of a room before presenting.

Know your audience (multiple intelligences). While young students might like
razzle-dazzle, is it needed? Will it detract from your message?

Slow down. Too many slides may lose the audience.

Your audience will appreciate a change of pace during the presentation,
so that you don't lose their attention. Burmark (2012)
suggested a change of pace for at least two minutes after they've sat and
listened about ten minutes. "The two minutes is not an unrelated
time-out, but rather a different way of recapping what was just shared or
previewing the coming attraction. It's the perfect time for audience
engagement, peer-to-peer sharing, a humorous (and relevant!) video clip,
connecting with prior knowledge, and using different modalities to match the
leaning styles of diverse learners" (p. 45).

If you use PowerPoint (or OpenOffice or PDF) as an authoring tool for
presentations, consider sharing the presentation online either publicly or
privately using the free resource at
Slideshare.net. PowerPoint can
also be converted for storage online with Prezi,
which is cloud-based presentation software with additional features to capture
your audience. Prezi also allows for online collaboration in developing
presentations.

Tips for Multimedia and Accessibility

Don't forget about accessibility.

A quick rule of thumb for
making your multimedia project or presentation accessible to all is to
synchronize your multimedia presentation with audio. If your audience
can't see the presentation, they must be able to hear it, or vice versa.

Caption audio or provide transcripts used in your videos so that deaf or hearing impaired
students have access. Also consider that in any setting with a lot of
noise, all viewers benefit from text equivalents.

If your PowerPoint presentation is posted on the Web, consider
learners who might need to use a screen reader to access the content.
Consider providing the presentation in HTML format, which can be
interpreted by a screen reader.

Provide alternative text for online images, which screen
readers can read and which appear when a mouse hovers over an
online image.

Not every student can easily manipulate a mouse. Provide keyboard
access to content.

Also do not assume all learners can navigate the
internet successfully. Many need to be taught how to
search the Web with appropriate words/phrases and then to know
how to determine whether content is authoritative or just
opinion, particularly those with learning challenges.

Accesselearning.net from the
Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA) at Georgia
Institute of Technology provides a series of 10 free tutorials on how to make
your multimedia projects accessible to all. After an overview of
accessibility issues and planning for accessibility in distance education
(actually applicable to any learning setting), learn how to make accessible
documents using PowerPoint, video, Flash, Word documents, Excel documents, PDF
documents, Web pages, scripts and Java.

DO-IT, a program from
the University of Washington, has tips for making math and other content
accessible to all.

If you copy your project or presentation to another computer, you
need to also copy all the multimedia files that you have inserted into
your project. Best advice--store each of your projects or
presentations along with all multimedia files inserted in a separate
folder on your computer. Then if you need to copy your
presentation onto another computer, copy the source folder. If you
are presenting your project on a computer that does not have your
development software on it, be sure to include the player for your
presentation (e.g., PowerPoint player), as well.

See Assessment for resources for creating
e-portfolios and storing those online.

SAVE OFTEN! BACK UP ALL WORK!

Saving work often and making backups of it often are just good
practices. I recall a particular video that we had of one of our
daughter's gymnastic meets, a one of a kind, that was lost forever
because the disc on which it was stored was accidentally used to record
something else. This was a huge lesson learned about the need for
backups. I also recall having backups of a backup for really
important documents, like versions of my dissertation as it was in
progress. So, imagine the woes of students who have worked
diligently on projects only to have accidents erase important work or
unexpected computer glitches make documents irretrievable.

"Decide ahead of time what to do about a project that crashed,
disappeared, became corrupted, or was ruined by a hasty keystroke.
Maybe the grade will be based on a completed final draft of the
writing that is the foundation of the project, giving a
participation or effort credit for the technology component. When
experimenting with a new or particularly complex technology,
consider setting the expectation level to GE—Good Enough" (p. 60).

Have backup plans in place for class time when log-ins don't
work or software applications are inaccessible. Students might
partner with another at their computer.

When doing something new, review the basics ahead of time
explaining the logic behind it.

Write out procedures. This will sometimes help students to
answer their own questions and work at their own pace.

Use a buddy system for teaching and answering questions. The
Learn–Teach–Learn model is helpful to demonstrate a procedure to a
first group of students or student. Then have each group or student
help a subsequent group or individual. The peer-to-peer
question/answer process reinforces learning. If peers can't answer
questions from others, then the teacher can be consulted. Rather
than having hands fly in the air, "Use place-card-style signs
students can put on top of the computer to signal for help. The sign
can indicate urgent computer problems and less urgent questions
about directions or content" (p. 62). I would add that color coding
those signs would be helpful to draw attention to the level of
urgency.

Be aware of software versions. Some work might need to be saved
in a lower format to allow for greatest transferability. Download
software upgrades as they become available.

Consider the learning curve for software applications. New
software versions and upgrades often come with additional features.
Have tutorials available.

To learn new software, teachers might need to experiment with it
at home. This means that administration might need a policy
allowing teachers to take equipment home.

When demonstrating a project using a computer other than the one
used for its development, be sure you have all cables available and
necessarily software installed on that computer.

Expect and value the contributions of learners who might know
more about the software and technology being used than you do.
(Adapted from pp. 60-62).

Consider using online storage and Web 2.0 tools for
collaboration.

icloud offers 3GB of free
online storage for your documents, images, and other files. Access
files from any computer. You can also use the service to
collaborate with others.

VoiceThread, which has made its
premium account available to K-12 educators for free. “A VoiceThread is
an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media
(images, documents and videos).” The beauty lies in the
commentaries that people can add to the media using a mix of voice with
a microphone or telephone, text, audio file, or video with a webcam.
This allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place.
Even doodles can be added in feedback. You can designate your
media as public, private, or accessible by a select few, the latter of
which is a good safety feature for students.

For a nominal fee, K-12 educators can ensure their students are
collaborating in a secure and safe network by using the
Ed.VoiceThread. It’s a
private space by default “for creating digital stories and
documentaries, practicing language skills, exploring geography and
culture, solving math problems, collaborating with other students, or
simply finding and honing student voices.” Plus, there’s an option
to make those creations public. Public sharing does tell students
their creativity has added value.

Wiggio.com is a free online toolkit for
working in groups, including for academic projects. According to the
Wiggio Team, "On Wiggio, you can share and edit files, manage a group
calendar, poll your group, post links, set up conference calls, chat online
and send mass text, voice and email messages to your group members. Each
group member can define how they want to keep informed of group activity"
(About Wiggio section, para. 3).

If you are using mobile devices (e.g., iPad, iPod) in your
project-based learning activities, consider the Classroom Do's and Don'ts
by Tony Vincent at Learning in Hand.